editorials
Mass Murder Continues
W e have had enough. We
struggle to find the right
words. We simply cannot understand
the insistence by gun advocates that
civilians need access to automatic
weapons fortified by high-capacity
magazines, with the ability to kill
dozens of people in seconds. Nor
can we accept the argument that
the entitlement to tools of mass
destruction is somehow guaranteed
to every American by the Second
Amendment. The frailty of the gun
lobby argument needs to be exposed
and rejected.

On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman
murdered 19 elementary school-
aged children and two teachers and
injured 17 others at Robb Elementary
School in Uvalde, Texas. The story
is painfully familiar. Nearly 10 years
ago a 20-year-old gunman mur-
dered 20 children and six adults at
Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut. Since then,
mass shootings have taken the lives
of more than 1,000 people at shop-
ping centers, places of worship, fes-
tivals and more.

Each incident is followed by public
outcries, hand wringing and crocodile
tears by our elected leaders, who then
do nothing to stop the mayhem.

Mass murder has been normalized
in our country.

Each incident is followed by public
outcries, hand wringing and croc-
odile tears by our elected leaders,
who then do nothing to stop the
mayhem. Mass murder has been nor-
malized in our country — complete
with a practiced communal ritual:
First, there are calls for thoughts and
prayers for the dead and their griev-
ing families. Then the media reports
on how the families are trying to
make sense of what happened. That
is followed by government leaders
who decry the senseless violence
and express empathy and outrage,
along with talk of common-sense
gun reform and the need for mental
health counseling. And then, noth-
ing happens.

Sometimes, like in the Uvalde case,
we hear lame-brained suggestion
from gun defenders to arm teachers
and other school staff so that they
can defend against attackers. But no
one explains why teachers should
be able to fight off a gunman when
local police aren’t able to do so, or
how teachers and school adminis-
trators can be expected to defend
against a mentally unstable bad guy
who is armed for war. The Uvalde
gunman legally bought two assault
rifles just days after his 18th birthday.

Why does a civilian teenager need
an assault rifle, or any other weapon
of war or of mass murder?
Shortly after the Uvalde shooting,
Congress went into recess. But a
couple of senators stuck around to
discuss possible bipartisan gun leg-
islation during the recess. Preliminary
reports suggest that some progress
is being made. But talk without action
is useless. We therefore encourage
our readers to call or write to our rep-
resentatives and senators to insist
that they not let the issue of sane
gun laws fall by the wayside. And, in
the process, see whether any of our
elected officials can explain where
in the Second Amendment a teen-
ager is guaranteed the right to own
assault rifles and other weapons of
mass destruction.

We must insist that our represen-
tatives legislate sanity and limit the
availability of weapons of war to
those fighting wars. We need gun
laws that make sense. JE
A Plan B for Iran?
W ith President Joe Biden’s
decision to keep Iran’s
paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps on the State Department
list of terrorist organizations, the
administration has signaled its
willingness to walk away from
negotiations to rejoin the Iran nuclear
deal. This is so, notwithstanding the
Biden administration’s belief that
former President Donald Trump’s 2018
withdrawal from the deal was a mistake.

The Revolutionary Guard controls
a huge slice of the Iranian econ-
omy and supports militant groups
from Afghanistan to Lebanon. Any
agreement to legitimize IRGC would
enable Iran to rebuild its econ-
omy, rejoin the world community
and continue its hegemonic push
into the Middle East — all while
brandishing the threat of a nuclear
bomb. According to the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Iran’s likely
10 JUNE 2, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
“breakout time” — how long it
would take to make enough fissile
material for one bomb — is around
three to six weeks. Weaponization
could take two years. And while
Tehran has always maintained that
it is enriching uranium for peaceful
purposes, no one takes that claim
seriously. Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign
Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian,
reacted to the Biden decision by
invoking an antisemitic conspiracy
theory, declaring that “the national
interests of the United States have
been taken hostage by the Zionists.”
He had other outrageous things to
say — none of them indicating an
interest in helping to make a deal
happen. So what can we expect with
the collapse of the Iran talks? What
is Plan B, and how can it ensure that
Iran does not complete the building
of a bomb or try to carry out any of
its threats to Israel or others?
The hawkish Jewish Institute for
National Security of America recently
released its own Plan B for a “new
strategy of comprehensive pressure
on Tehran.” Among its recommen-
dations: • Articulate a Biden Doctrine reaf-
firming America’s commitment
to use all elements of national
power to defend vital U.S. inter-
ests in the Middle East — first
and foremost to prevent Iran from
developing nuclear weapons.

• To strengthen Israel, provide it
with adequate stockpiles of preci-
sion guided munitions, including
Joint Direct Attack Munitions and
GBU-39/B small diameter bombs.

• Harness the unique strategic
opportunity of the Abraham
Accords by integrating Israel more
fully in U.S. Central Command
alongside U.S. and Arab partner
forces. The JINSA list goes on. We’re not
security experts, so we cannot say
if this is the best plan. But we do
favor the recognition that the United
States, Israel and other countries
threatened by Iran need to be plan-
ning in earnest for what comes after
the negotiations. This is so because,
as pointed out by JINSA, “there can
be no return to the [Iran deal], as
Iran’s nuclear program has advanced
so significantly that imposing the
same nuclear restrictions as seven
years ago would merely curb Iran’s
nuclear program only half as much,
and only for half as long, as the orig-
inal accord.”
It will take creativity and com-
mitment to develop a Plan B and to
see it through. We await the Biden
administration’s next steps. JE



opinions & letters
Here’s How We Can Help
100,000 New Ukrainian Refugees
BY ELANA BROITMAN
Photo by Billy Hathorn (talk) / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
A fter my family and I escaped
from Odessa in the mid-1970s,
an awful feeling of statelessness
settled upon me. Our family had lived
there for generations, but my parents
understood that Jews had limited
opportunities in the Soviet Union.

They resolved to leave while my sister
and I were young enough to learn a
new life, even if it meant leaving so
much behind.

I’ll never forget both the joy and
trepidation we experienced in fi nally
getting the green light to come to
America. For months after leaving,
my sister and I had to sleep on a
small sofa in a Roman suburb as
we awaited permission to enter the
United States along with so many
thousands of other Soviet Jews. We
arrived not speaking the language
and with only the minimal posses-
sions that we were able to take with
us. But the Jewish community sup-
ported us tremendously and we felt
that we were not alone.

Now, as the United States prepares
to take in 100,000 Ukrainian refu-
gees, I can’t help but refl ect on the
multiplicity of challenges that await
them and what our society will need
to do to make their transition suc-
cessful. Refugees’ entire lives have been
uprooted and upended. They need
help fi nding not just housing but
community. They need schools for
their children and emotional support
for their families, job opportunities,
transportation and language instruc-
tion. Their family relationships have
typically been subjected to a great
deal of strain. Many will need mental
health counseling.

The nonprofi t and faith-based sec-
tor has developed a tremendous
depth of expertise in providing all
these services and must play a role in
any resettlement strategy.

Take my organization, the Jewish
Federations of North America. We’ve
collectively raised more than $50
The downtown section of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn is known for its high
population of Russian-speaking immigrants and came to be known as Little
Odessa. million from across the continent to
aid Ukrainian refugees and will raise
much more in the coming weeks and
months. These funds are being directed
to four main areas: humanitarian aid
to the refugees and help with reset-
tlement in other countries; enabling
Jewish refugees to emigrate to Israel
if they wish to do so; preparing to
help the Jews of Russia and Belarus
escape if the need arises; and rebuild-
ing Ukraine after the war ends.

Right now, my focus is on resettle-
ment. More than three decades ago,
we in the Jewish community stood
proudly with New Jersey Sen. Frank
Lautenberg when he sponsored the
successful bill to allow 400,000 Soviet
Jews and other refugees to reunite
with families in the United States; it
is the Lautenberg Amendment that
the Biden administration is using to
permit some of the Ukrainian refu-
gees to come here. In recent weeks,
Federations have collaborated with
375 Jewish and interfaith partners
across North America to lobby the
government to permit refugees in.

I know from my own experience
that welcoming the stranger isn’t just
about the bare necessities — food,
clothing, shelter, transportation and
medical care. Community-based non-
profi ts are a key partner in ensuring
that these refugees get what they
need. For example, the government has
partnered with Jewish agencies and
other humanitarian organizations for
decades to help resettle refugees
in communities — a partnership that
was formalized in 1975 following the
Vietnam War. More recently, we have
helped to resettle hundreds of refu-
gees from Afghanistan and continue
to do so every day.

Jewish Federations are animated
by the core Jewish teaching that sav-
ing one life is tantamount to saving the
entire world. We know our community,
which consists of so many children,
grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren of refugees from Eastern Europe
at the turn of the twentieth century,
could not have prospered without the
help of the communities that paved
the way for us to become American.

We stand ready to pay it forward
and help to integrate the Ukrainian
immigrants into our society using all
the resources, tools, knowledge and
experience that are at our disposal.

The emergency aid package that
Congress recently approved will pro-
vide desperately needed resources,
and the Senate should follow suit,
but that’s just a start. I hear every
day about the burdens that Ukrainian
refugees face and know that more
funding will be necessary to ensure
that they can build productive lives
here. And in the short term, many
Ukrainians are seeking work autho-
rizations so they can support them-
selves, but they face signifi cant
backlogs that require urgent atten-
tion and resources from the admin-
istration. Finally, for those who wish to remain
beyond the two years that the current
humanitarian parole program autho-
rizes, these Ukrainians must have a
path to citizenship.

I firmly believe that these
approaches will allow American non-
profi ts and volunteers to play our part
and do what we do best in welcoming
refugees and integrating them into
our communities. JE
Elana Broitman is senior vice presi-
dent of public aff airs for the Jewish
Federations of North America.

letters CRT Viewpoint Depends on Who’s Asking
In the May 26 op-ed, “Where Do Jews Fit into Critical Race Theory,” Fred L.

Pincus asks the question: Are Jews white? The answer to that depends on
who is asking the question and their opinion of whites.

Critical race theory proponents, who have a negative view of whites, will
say “yes.” White nationalists, who have a positive view of whites, will say
“no.” Neil Shapiro, Blue Bell
Letters should be related to articles that have run in the print or online editions of the JE, and may
be edited for space and clarity prior to publication. Please include your first and last name, as well
your town/neighborhood of residence. Send letters to letters@jewishexponent.com.

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